It's Hot: Ocean City Music Pier

Bob Rose said he had tried but figured there was no shot.

He and a partner book shows each summer on the Ocean City Music Pier. Before each season, he talks with city officials and residents about which acts they'd like to see. This year, someone suggested the Beach Boys.

"I'm thinking, 'Yeah, right,' " Rose said. "So I talked to my partner, and he decided to pursue it, and, lo and behold, [the Beach Boys] liked the idea of playing in Ocean City. When you're pitching 'America's Greatest Family Resort,' you can't think of a better band than the Beach Boys."

How could they pass on Ocean City? The Beach Boys will pretty much play on the beach when they come to the Music Pier for four shows Monday and Tuesday. Monday's show is sold out, but as of Thursday, a few tickets were still available for Tuesday's show.

Rose has been booking talent at the Ocean City Music Pier for 21 years, focusing on a mix of big bands and doo-wop, classic rock, and folk music. This summer, Lucinda Williams, Robbie Krieger (of The Doors), Trombone Shorty, and Dave Mason have played the pier, as well as tribute acts to Led Zeppelin (Get the Led Out) and Pink Floyd (The Machine).

But Rose can't take credit for the Beach Boys booking. His partner Bill Rogers, a longtime area promoter who now runs BRE Presents in Haddonfield, got the band to come to Ocean City. Rose and Rogers have been collaborating on bookings for 15 years.

The pier, designed by Vivian Smith, was the centerpiece of a boardwalk renovation after a fire destroyed a large section in 1927.

It "was part of a new day for the Ocean City Boardwalk," said Jeff McGranahan, executive director of the Ocean City Historical Museum. "They were looking for a municipal building that would really kind of serve as a centerpiece for this grand new boardwalk."

Though the structure has been modified, McGranahan said, it looks remarkably as it did when it opened in 1928. An observation tower was put up during World War II and later removed. There used to be an ornate fan backdrop behind the stage, but McGranahan suspects it was removed during a war drive for scrap metal.

In addition to the bookings by BRE Presents and Rose, the pier is home all summer to the Ocean City Pops. The venue seats about 900.

The current Beach Boys tour contains one original member of the group, Mike Love. Bruce Johnston, who joined the band in 1965 as a touring member when Brian Wilson quit touring to focus on recording, also performs on the current jaunt.

The Beach Boys had been playing smaller venues on this tour, including casinos, a state park (in Indiana), and the Atlanta Botanical Garden. This year, the band played the Borgata in Atlantic City with America.

The Beach Boys played a wide swath of their catalog at a recent show in Lancaster, according to Setlist.fm. It included the musicians' earlier hits (five songs about surfing, six songs about cars), several songs from their critical breakthrough period around Pet Sounds and "Good Vibrations," all the way up to their surprise No. 1 hit from the 1980s, "Kokomo." Their 2015 show is a concert of all their hits.

Rose says the Ocean City Music Pier is easy to book because he has the support of all the stakeholders in the city.

"We're hoping Mike Love and the Beach Boys love doing the show," said Rose, "and you never know what will happen in the future."